1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly, to a multi-port modular jack for being mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) with additional ground plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With ever-increasing operating frequencies of data and communication systems and an increased density of information to be transmitted, the electrical characteristics of modular jacks are of increasing importance. In particular, it has to be ensured that modular jacks do not have bad effects on the signals to be transmitted and that no additional interference is introduce to minimize negative interference. Modular jacks can use various types of filters, such as a three-terminal capacitor or a common mode choke coil, to reduce or eliminate noise, and grounding means is needed to remove the noises.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,759 issued to Sakamoto et al. on Feb. 1, 1994 disclosed a conventional modular jack. The Sakamoto modular jack includes an insulative body case, terminals, a capacitor array acting as a filter, a cover and an inverted-U-Shaped grounding terminal. The grounding terminal includes a right and a left side plates and a connecting plate. By inserting the side plates in slots disposed on opposite sides of the body case until small projections of the side plates get stuck in corresponding slots, the grounding terminal is fixed on the body case. The connecting plate of the grounding terminal is in contact with the common electrode of the capacitor array. The side plates of the grounding terminal protrude their claws from the slots of the body case, and the claws are inserted into holes of a circuit board of an electronic appliance and soldered to a grounding line formed on the circuit board. In this way, the common electrode of the capacitor array is connected with the grounding line of the electronic appliance through the grounding terminal.
However, the grounding terminal disclosed by Sakatoto et al. uses the connecting plate contacting with the common electrode of the capacitor array, which is a relatively weak connection. Moreover, the inverted-U-shaped grounding terminal is relatively large when used in stacked modular jack application and the assemble process is complicated. Furthermore, in high speed application, additional ground connections are needed for removing noises promptly. The mounting process and ground connection become more complicated when more ports are integrally made as an assembly.
Hence, an electrical connector with improved ground means is needed to overcome the foregoing shortcomings.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with a ground plate for removing noises promptly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with a ground plate, which is easy to assemble.
An electrical connector mounted on a main printed circuit board (PCB), includes an insulative housing defining at least one cavity, an insert module received in the housing, a rear ground plate, and an outer shell. The insert module includes a plurality of contacts extending into the cavity of the housing, and at least one internal PCB containing at least one ground pad. The rear ground plate is coupled to a rear portion of the insert module and includes at least one upper ground contact electrically connecting with ground pad of the internal PCB and at least one lower ground contact extending downwardly for engaging with a ground pad of the main PCB. The outer shell is provided for surrounding the insulative housing with the rear ground plate sandwiched therebetween.